Friday 22 November 2013

Festive Friday - Beauty Advent Calendars

Hi guys! So I've decided to start a new series on Bee's Knees in the run up to Christmas - Festive Fridays! I hope to share something different with you every week which is in keeping with the festive theme, whether it's Christmas candles, decorations or gift buying ideas and tips! Let me know if you like this idea and if you have any requests for posts.


This week's post is all about beauty advent calendars. I'm sure many of you will be well acquainted with the festive offerings from big beauty giants like Benefit and Selfridges, but unfortunately much as I would LOVE to have the cash to buy them all I have picked up my two favourites - the Boots Beauty Advent Calendar (£30 HERE) and the Ciate Mini Mani Month (£42 HERE).



First up, the beauty calendar from Boots. I was really excited to see what this would contain and thought it would be an excellent more budget-friendly option in place of the Selfridges calendar. But when I came across The Sunday Girl's blog review listing the contents I was a little disappointed (read it HERE). It didn't seem worth £30 to me, and I decided against buying it... until a couple of weeks later I realised I had enough Boots Advantage Points to be able to get it for free! I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather spend my points on, and knowing how much enjoyment I got from my Ciate advent calendar last year I ordered it online to collect in store. I think it's currently out of stock on the Boots website (HERE) but you never know when stock might come back in. 



My other advent calendar will be no surprise to those of you who have followed Bee's Knees for a long time - it's the return the Ciate Mini Mani Month! I bought this last year and absolutely LOVED the experience of opening up a new mini nail polish every month. Even though all the colours were not necessarily to my taste (there were a lot of caviars which I haven't used, and many pink colours that I gave away) it was a great way to spend December and I posted about it a lot on the blog (read my summary post HERE)


Although Selfridges/Ciate have been a bit cheeky this year and increased the price to £42 (I'm sure it was closer to £30 last year) I had decided months ago that I would be treating myself to this so I had the money put away long before it came on sale! I really recommend this if you can afford it and love nail varnish, you won't regret it! I posted every day in December last year showcasing the polishes behind each door - I'm not sure if I'm going to do the same this year so watch this space.


I'm really glad I bought the Mini Mani Month because the shades are much more appealing to me this year - not to mention they've added in a full sized polish on Christmas Eve! Bring on the 1st of December. You can pick this up from Selfridges HERE.

Are you a fan of beauty advent calendars? Have you treated yourself to any? Which are your favourites?
xx


4 comments:

  1. The Ciate calender looks so good! I've got the You Beauty one this year, can't wait for December 1st to start opening it up! xo

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  2. I have the Boots one this year, but am planning to splash out a little more next year!

    Sophie
    http://what-sophie-said.blogspot.co.uk/
    xxx

    ReplyDelete